KFC: No proof worker asked scarred child to leave

Tuesday

Jun 24, 2014 at 12:01 AMJun 24, 2014 at 8:41 PM

JACKSON, Miss. -- Fried chicken chain KFC says two different investigations have not found any evidence that an employee asked a 3-year-old girl and her family to leave because injuries she suffered in a pit bull mauling disturbed customers.

JACKSON, Miss. -- Fried chicken chain KFC says two different investigations have not found any evidence that an employee asked a 3-year-old girl and her family to leave because injuries she suffered in a pit bull mauling disturbed customers.

KFC spokesman Rick Maynard said today the company considers the matter closed. He says an investigation by the franchise restaurant in Mississippi and an independent probe were done.

Attorney Bill Kellum, who represents the family of Victoria Wilcher, said a statement would be issued later today.

Maynard says KFC's commitment of $30,000 to help with the child's medical bills will not be affected by the outcome of the investigation.

Allegations that the child was asked to leave the restaurant were made earlier this month on the Facebook site Victoria's Victories, which has followed the child's recovery from the April attack.

"I promise it's not a hoax, I never thought any of this would blow up the way it has," a post said early today. "I have personally watched this family go without to provide for Victoria. They have not and would not do anything to hurt Victoria in any way."

No one immediately responded to a message sent through the Facebook page.

Earlier, the child's grandmother, Kelly Mullins, told Jackson television station WAPT-TV that the child had just been to a doctor and stopped at the restaurant. After they ordered, an employee approached, she said.

"They just told us, they said, 'We have to ask you to leave because her face is disrupting our customers,'" Mullins told the TV station.

In her posts, Bates said the child was attacked by three pit bulls while visiting her grandfather at his home in Simpson County south of Jackson in April. Since then, she has undergone reconstructive surgery, Bates said.